Traditionally, customer service has been provided over the telephone. A customer calls a company, waits on hold for the next available live agent, and then makes an information request to the live agent. To handle the calls, the company sometimes creates a call center staffed by a sufficient number of live agents to maintain hold times at a target maximum duration, for example. As the number of calls increases, either the company must hire more live agents, or the hold time increases.
The Internet offers a new vehicle for delivering customer support. By offering Internet-based customer service, a company has the potential to increase service quality, while at the same time reducing customer service costs. For instance, one known Internet solution connects a customer to a live agent, and enables the live agent and customer to textually communicate via instant messaging, E-mail, or a browser application rather than by telephone. One advantage is that a live agent can carry on textual conversations with multiple customers at once, thereby improving call center productivity.
In another known customer service model that avoids using a live agent, a customer inputs a query into a browser window in the form of a question or a keyword. The customer is then presented with a list of articles that might be relevant to the query. One characteristic is that the customer must select, such as by clicking on a link, the appropriate article from those presented, increasing the burden on the customer, and thereby decreasing the likelihood that the customer will choose to use this solution.